New York Governor: State’s Borders Will Remain Open, Immigrants Welcome

“…If you want to make New York your home, we want you,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a Hispanic conference Saturday.

As some say Cuomo, 53, is eying a presidential run in 2016, the governor spoke to conference-goers about a goal of doubling minority- and women-owned businesses that receive state contracts. He said it is important to ensure that state agencies are multilingual, and suggested that immigration is a way to do that.

“While other parts of the country are building walls and fences, we’re pointing to the Lady in the Harbor who holds the torch and says, ‘We are the beacon of liberty and the beacon of opportunity.’”

Later in the conference, Cuomo confuted claims that his recently implemented budget hurts minority and low-income communities by saying, “I disagree with the concept that the only way to get better services is more money, more money, more money, he said. “We’ve been spending a lot of more money, we’re not getting better services.”